Alcohol and the Body
Alcohol (ethanol) is a drug that affects your entire body. The moment you take your first sip, the impact starts in your body. Although an occasional glass of wine is common, alcoholism builds steadily. Simple phrases like “beer o’clock” or “it’s 5 somewhere” can be the grease on a slippery slope. For men wondering how alcohol affects the body, often the thoughts of the beer belly are the initial ones. But here we want to get a little deeper than weight gain.
According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) done in 2019, 85.6% of people aged 18 years and above took alcohol at some point in their lifetime. 69.5% drank in the past year.
Alcohol affects everyone differently. How it affects you depends on how much you consume, your age, medical conditions, gender, and other factors. Drinking too much can cause long-term effects on your body, physical and mental.
What Alcohol Does to Your Body
When you take alcohol, it is quickly absorbed into your bloodstream and travels to all parts of your body.
In the case of pregnancy, an unborn baby is exposed and can affect their development.
Your brain slows down and starts affecting your thinking, behavior, and how you feel. It only takes a few minutes for the alcohol to reach the brain for an average healthy person.
Blood Alcohol Content (BAC)
It is paramount to understand your blood alcohol content (BAC) as it determines the effect alcohol could have on the central nervous system. It varies from person to person as some have built up a tolerance to alcohol and can consume more than the people who have a lower tolerance level.
Depending on your BAC, the side effects could range from minor to more severe complications. As the BAC percentage increases, so do the symptoms become life-threatening. In the US, the standard drink has 0.6 ounces (14.0 grams) of pure alcohol. This quantity of pure alcohol is in:
- 12 fluids ounces of beer (approximately 5% alcohol content)
- 8 fluid ounces of malt liquor (approximately 7% alcohol content)
- 5 fluid ounces of wine (approximately 12% alcohol content)
- 1.5 fluid ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits (approximately 40% alcohol content)
How Alcohol Abuse Affects the Body
Alcohol abuse affects your body both inside and outside. Do not ignore the warning signs of alcoholism as it damages your internal organs. In most cases, these complications get discovered when it is already too late to reverse many health complications. Whereas every organ in your body feels the effects of drinking, there are those at risk for extensive damage.
The best method of preventing health issues now and in the future is to seek help with professional addiction treatment.
The Brain
The brain quickly feels the effects of alcohol. Alcohol consumption causes temporary complications such as memory loss and coordination. It can lead to long-term side effects which are sometimes irreversible.
Excessive and prolonged alcohol use interferes not only with how the brain functions, but how it is structured as well. If there is harm to different areas of the brain, particularly the cerebral cortex, cerebellum, and limbic system, it can affect the body’s communication pathways.
A good example is the cerebellum which handles your body motor skills. You are likely to experience memory and emotional issues and sometimes loss of balance if alcohol affects this area.
Heart
The heart is an extremely vulnerable body organ. Effects of heavy alcohol consumption over time can weaken the heart. Heavy drinking can impact how nutrients and oxygen get delivered to other vital organs in your body. Triglyceride levels, a type of fat in your blood, increases with excessive alcohol consumption. If triggered to high levels, the triglycerides can result in the risk of developing dangerous health conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes.
Excessive drinking over time may lead to stroke, cardiomyopathy, and sudden cardiac death.
Alcohol and Your Liver
The liver is the second largest organ in your body. It has responsibilities such as processing what we eat and sifting harmful substances from the blood. Alcoholics are at a higher risk of having potentially life-threatening liver complications. Alcohol gets broken down by your liver and removed from your body when you drink.
Drinking too much alcohol over a short period can overwhelm the metabolism process causing fatty liver disease. Fatty liver is a disease that involves the buildup of too much fat in the liver cells. Obesity is one of the factors of fatty liver.
Fatty liver also causes type 2 diabetes and liver failure.
Other serious complications associated with heavy drinking include fibrosis, cirrhosis, and alcoholic hepatitis. Although one can get treatment for these conditions, there is a requirement for a proper and intensive treatment plan.
Alcohol’s Effect on the Pancreas
The pancreas is another vital organ of the body located in the abdomen. It has two main functions, regulating your body’s blood sugar levels and helps to digest food.
Consumption of alcohol over a long period can negatively affect your pancreas, resulting in health complications.
Regrettably, the early stages of most pancreatic illnesses often go unnoticed and are left untreated. Long-term abuse of alcohol causes the blood vessels around the pancreas to swell resulting in pancreatitis. It momentously increases the risk of getting pancreatic cancer which is dangerous and spreads fast. With medications and treatment, pancreatitis can get managed, although it is difficult to reverse the condition.
Reproductive System
Did you know alcohol is a depressant? Overdoing it is one of the common causes of erectile dysfunction. It can decrease sexual desire, mood and make it difficult for a man to achieve erections. In women, alcohol abuse can disrupt the normal menstrual cycle. Other effects include altered levels of progesterone and estrogen and the risk of infertility.
Addiction Treatment Center for Alcohol
At Heartwood Recovery in Austin, Texas, we first assess an individual to determine if medical detoxification is required. For an individual to go through rehabilitation, one needs to go through a medically assisted detoxification process.
Detoxification is a process of getting rid of harmful toxins from an individual’s body in safe environs. It is a comprehensive treatment as alcohol withdrawal is often difficult. Before the beginning of treatment, detoxifying an individual is paramount, to avoid a relapse in the future.
At Heartwood, we offer high-quality addiction treatment for men. We understand what you are going through and the misgiving of your current mind. But there is hope. We have a highly dedicated addiction treatment staff, who understand the difficulty individuals experience—be it emotional, mental, or physical withdrawal symptoms.
Once you make the call for addiction treatment, you are on the road to recovery. There are many facets to sobriety, but our experienced and compassionate team works with you to create a personalized plan and rehab process.
